She's also the stay at home wife of a neurologist, so she can afford the time (and perhaps more importantly, neighborhood) to make this work.

Well, yeah. It does strike me as something, perhaps counter intuitively, that she can indulge as a result of privilege. In this day and age, just intentionally having six children may be a way of utilizing one's surplus prosperity. People without often go through great lengths to avoid such a burden.

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There are many communities in Europe and other countries where people mostly rely on bikes and public transportation. You can save a ton of money by not having multiple cars. You are also probably a lot more healthy.

But I know, we hate Europe and their weird ways would never work here anyways.

Two years ago, my wife and I rode on some trails near Menomoninee, WI. The trails were built on an old railway, straight through some old pioneering homestead. We put in about 35 miles before we called it a day. While driving past some Historical marker, I commented to my wife on how ridiculous our recreation would seem to pioneer farmers. What a luxury it is to be able to expend that much energy for recreation. The pioneers had to save almost all of their strength and energy for their work. A day off was almost unheard of, and for those days off, even if they'd had bikes and trails, would not entail such effort just for the fun of it.

"In this day and age, just intentionally having six children may be a way of utilizing one's surplus prosperity. People without often go through great lengths to avoid such a burden."

Doesn't sound fair to me.

The couple is taking advantage of their "surplus prosperity" to plant their perpetual carbon footprints. Their chances of having further generations to perpetuate their gene pool are much greater than those of us who have to "go through great lengths to avoid such a burden", especially those of us who care about Gaia to terminate such "burden" before said "burden" becomes a menace to Gaia.

We must be fair, we must give the selfish couple's "surplus prosperity" to more deserving couples. We must make the couple realize that they cannot foist their "burdens" on the rest of us. We must only allow one burden per woman.

I'd far prefer to use my surplus prosperity on kids than on things. My husband's not quite there with me. So we compromised on the 4 that we have, when he originally envisioned taking 2 kids on ski trips and I envisioned eating rice and beans with 6.

Now as to Mrs. Finch: this story made the rounds on Facebook and I got my ass handed to me by the biking enthusiasts when I questioned how safe that could possibly be. I don't care how "bike-friendly" Portland is; I would never put all those little heads on the road with cars whose bumpers are at exactly the same height as they are. If she's just taking them on bike-only areas (if I recall, the story was vague on that point), then whatever, but mixing cars and bikes seems ill-advised to me. Especially kids. Given that her husband is presumably familiar with catastrophic brain injuries I'm surprised he's OK with it.

Okay...I'm annoyed. The decision to be open to having children is not a question of economics but of will. The economics follow from that decision. I have ten children. If we did not have ten children, we would be probably considered accurately, wealthy. Because we have ten children,I say we are rich. But economics are not easy nor are they constant. The children however, are.

Those kids hit 13 she's gonna have a problem. I thought I was gonna' have to strangle my stepdaughter to get her to do anything. Obviously I exaggerate but teenagers are just useless. They should be put in pens like the zoo has and just hosed off occasionally until they reach 20.

I do admire people who bike all year in Portland, though. The weather is pretty awful much of the year -- this goes double because wonderful stuff like Gore Tex is eschewed by the tragically hip (i.e. the sort of people who ride bikes everywhere).

I'm fine with the number of kids she has, and the way she takes them around. She looks happy. I'd bet she'd beat Lance Armstrong if she ever had the luxury of biking with only herself.

But her guilt because of "peak oil" and driving a "9-person Suburban"??? Dude. I drive a 'Burb, and yo, it seats 7. And takes all their crap, even car seats, strollers, and everything needed to make the most anal-retentive mother (my daughter-in-law) feel she's got everything her 2-year-old needs. AND it gets 17-MPG, no matter how much it's loaded. That's damned efficient. AND everyone is comfortable, even on a 3000-mile road trip.

It would take three of my Honda FITs to get everything down the road with that crew, if we decided to drive a gas-sipper to save energy - two for the people, and one for the crap. And, you'd need three drivers, who would all be insane from the road noise at the end of the trip.

Six kids? Not a big deal -- rare but not unheard-of in my traditional middle-class heavily-Catholic neighborhood. But here's what doesn't make sense? The 11, 9, and 7 year old -- and probably the 5 year old too -- should be biking, not riding. The 11 year old could probably be pulling one of the smaller ones in a trailer, leaving mom with one or two small ones and any cargo.

I admire all you bike riders, since I was one until May when I cracked up going downhill at 30mph. Broken pelvis, torn bladder, and eventual osteomyelitis of the L5 S1 vertebrae. In fact, I used to wonder as I rode whether bike riding made sense from an actuarial standpoint. An awful lot of riders get creamed by oblivious drivers and their own mistakes. Does it really extend one's life to ride a bike? Inquiring minds want to know.

"An awful lot of riders get creamed by oblivious drivers and their own mistakes."

Which was it in your case?

I'm writing this as I sit here eating lunch halfway through an 80 or 90 mile ride (I'll know when I get home). So far so good, although I've been on some roads today that I normally wouldn't spend time on. A little too busy and narrow for comfort. I do study accident stories on Google News to try to avoid making the same mistakes that get some people in trouble.

She needed the car, what with 3 kids and being at home. That meant I commuted on a bike: 6.5 miles each way, into downtown Denver. The course record was -10F. At that temperature there are parts of you that cannot be gotten warm, ie, you can't wear clothes thick enough to maintain the warmth, and still peddle. It permanently wimped me; now, below about 60F, I lose all the suption of biking and go to the gym.

She needed the car, what with 3 kids and being at home. That meant I commuted on a bike: 6.5 miles each way, into downtown Denver. The course record was -10F. At that temperature there are parts of you that cannot be gotten warm, ie, you can't wear clothes thick enough to maintain the warmth, and still peddle. It permanently wimped me; now, below about 60F, I lose all the suption of biking and go to the gym.

But here's what doesn't make sense? The 11, 9, and 7 year old -- and probably the 5 year old too -- should be biking, not riding. The 11 year old could probably be pulling one of the smaller ones in a trailer, leaving mom with one or two small ones and any cargo.

The 11 year old rides his own bike, though he doesn't pull a trailer, while the 9 year old rides a separate bike that's permanently attached to Mom's bike and helps with the pedaling.

Tyrone. Sorry to hear about your accident. Accidents are not much mentioned by the Portland types. Not bad ones anyway. I have a neighbor who was hit on a very lonesome road, in a place that should have been completely safe, by a drunk going seventy. At noon on a clear day. Hit. And. Run. The found his shoes in a tree. He survived but has brain injury that he might never get over. A terrible thing. I hope you mend.

Bicyclists are bullies who can do anything that they choose with impunity. Now I'm a car, now I'm a bike, now I'm a pedestrian walking a bike - as a bicyclist I am generally whatever fits my whimsey of the moment.

Any dispute between a driver a cyclist will result in angry and sometimes violent bike mobs surrounding the driver in anger.

Get in a traffic dispute with one and he'll have more pro bono legal help than a Rosenberg.

Mostly, bikers don't care about car drivers because they don't have to.

The entire infrastructure of the city is geared around bikes and light rail. Buses, cheaper, more efficient, and accessible are considered an evil. Except by those who have to trudge long distances to the light rail stop because the bus no longer comes anywhere near their home.

The children in charge of this city just dropped over 45 million dollars for a new bridge plan that will connect I-5 across the Columbia to Vancouver. The planning kids ignored Coast Guard requirements and marine business needs.

The bridge plan is too low to use.

Portland supports its green infrastructure by diverting water and sewer revenue, creating new taxes, and reclassifying what were once tax paid for city services as new "fees."

Plus, we have a huge appetite for borrowing money off green projects. Then we borrow more money to pay on the interest of the earlier loans because we'll never afford to pay on the principle.We do not have the money to maintain the bike/rail infrastructure. No major road paving projects in the last 5 years.

The city is in cohoots w/ugly developers allowing them to build high density condo blocks that do not require parking structures. then, they sell parking spots to home owners for an annual fee.

Read Jack Bogs blog for two weeks. He's a left but he's also a tax lawyer/college professor. Guy follows the money.

All residents of greater Cascadia (Seattle and Portland metros with high-enough density Prius ratios) are obligated to adopt at least (1) non-white baby from a third-world country if said residents have managed to have (3) white children of their own in a period of (10) years. This has been determined by the general counsel.

***Otherwise, said residents must adopt at least (2) shelter dogs and take them to the communal dog park thrice weekly.

***Otherwise, at least (3) vacations over the course of a (10) year period must involve working with aid organizations in foreign countries, or working for not-for-profits organizations in Cascadia to help the communal welfare, to cure homelessness, to save the environment.

All hail Cascadia!

Hail!

The general will has spoken.

*******All Starbucks within said metro areas must play at least (4) hours of Bob Marley, or any steady-rock equivalent thereof, or any socially acceptable putumayo/world music variant thereof, daily.

I have five kids and I never thought of it as a way to soak up surplus prosperity. In fact, there has never been any surplus prosperity. But, there has been a lot of learning and growing and fun and enjoyment and it's occupied 40 years of our lives with at least one child still at home under 18. Never had a bicycle built for 7 nor an SUV.I never felt burdened or thought about my carbon footprint. I never felt I was over populating the world or using up more than my share of available resources. Instead, I thought the world would be a better place because there are five more hard working, educated, people not on welfare producing more than they consume and giving back more that they take out. Plus we're all good looking.

Between the tightening CAFE standards and the stringent child-restraint rules, it almost seems like a backdoor means on depressing family sizes. Three children or more requires an SUV or a shudder minivan...or two mid-sized sedans.

Try getting five people (two of them children in full car seats) into a typical midsize sedan. That's assuming the back seats have anchor points so that one doesn't have to use a lap belt just to anchor the child seat.

There are many communities in Europe and other countries where people mostly rely on bikes and public transportation. You can save a ton of money by not having multiple cars. You are also probably a lot more healthy.

I don't know why I find it so fascinating and funny, but watching the stream of bicyclists coming from the train station to work at the Mercedes (car, obviously) manufacturing plant makes my day every morning. Completely normal sight, here.

Six kids, on the other hand, would be a radically uncommon sight here in Europe.